


Tenebrae

by sedregina



Category: Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), One Shot, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 01:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13202673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sedregina/pseuds/sedregina
Summary: Post TLJ. Rey is trying to understand the Jedi books she took from Ahch-To. But she can't do it alone.





	Tenebrae

Since Crait, every night before falling asleep she felt a presence next to her. Something dark. Something familiar. Too familiar.

She ignored it at first. _Residues of the bond,_ she thought. _They’ll eventually go away._

But they stayed. But _he_ stayed.

“Go away,” she told the darkness one night. The fourth night, perhaps. The darkness didn’t answer.

“I know you’re there,” she whispered.

“Do you think I want to be?” the darkness replied. Its voice was soft, just like when the same voice, days before, had offered her the galaxy while fire fell from the sky. _Or did that happen in a dream?_

“Is there any way to stop this?” she asked.

“I’ve tried. I don’t know.”

 

* * *

 

During the day, she studied the Jedi texts. She stayed on the Falcon, not wanting to get in the way of the Resistance while they regrouped in their new base. Finn had told her she was welcome to join them anytime, but unlike him and Rose, their new heroes, she knew people watched her warily. They wanted to know how she managed to witness Supreme Leader Snoke’s demise and leave unscathed. They wanted to know why she was on the Supremacy in the first place.

With Luke and Leia gone, she had no one to talk to about the Force. No one she _wanted_ to talk to _._ She felt that what she had found in the books was important. But she couldn’t say why. _I need a teacher,_ she thought. _I was a fool to leave Luke. Why did Leia have to leave me, too?_

 

* * *

 

“Do you know why lightsabers are a Jedi's preferred weapon?” she asked one night. To herself or to the darkness, it didn’t matter. She just wanted to review what she had learned that day.

“The Force enhances them,” the darkness replied. It sounded bored, perhaps preoccupied with other thoughts.

“Yes, but do you know why?”

She knew she sounded excited. How she wished she could tell her discoveries to Luke.

“The crystals inside them resonate with the Force. They channel and amplify energy. So the saber becomes an extension of the Jedi's body.” Now the darkness sounded less bored but still patronising.

“Oh. I didn’t know it was common knowledge. I only learned about the kaiburr crystals today.”

“ _Kyber_ crystals. No one has called them kaiburr crystals in hundreds of years,” it scoffed.

“Well, that book _is_ hundreds of years old.”

“Did you find anything interesting in those texts? A way to break this bond, perhaps?”

The darkness had watched her studying the texts, it seemed. There was curiosity in its voice. She could sense it was interested in them. _What if she…_

“Not yet,” she answered.

 

* * *

 

A few nights passed when the darkness didn’t speak. Nor did she. It seems they were both content, or resigned, in their situation.

The darkness was warm, she had come to realize. In fact, she couldn’t recall a moment when she had been cold in _his_ presence. Even in the rain on Ahch-To, even in the hut when she was drenched and _he_ had touched her hand, she had never felt the cold.

 

* * *

 

She couldn’t stand it any longer.

She was used to loneliness, but after a month of staying with the Resistance - _but was she with them, really?_ \- now the Falcon and the base felt like a prison. She had tried to talk to Rose or Finn about the legendary city of NiJedha, about the  Temple of the Kyber and its shining vaults of crystals, about all the things she had found in the texts, but they were only mildly interested. _You are the Jedi, Rey,_ Finn had said smiling. _I’d choose a good blaster over a lightsaber any day. I don’t understand how you guys can make those things work._

The worst part was that she knew there was one person in the galaxy who would have understood. She could picture him already, with a strange twinkle in his eyes and his mouth slightly opened, listening to her talk about the old Jedi prophecies and the cold moon of Jedha.

 

* * *

 

One night she decided to ask the darkness what she had wanted to ask it for weeks.

“I was wondering if you wanted to help me with something.”

“With what?”  It was almost a whisper.

“Something that could help with the bond. It could help us find a way to severe it.” Maybe if she put it like this, the darkness would be more willing to help.

“Oh. Just that?”

_Could it be that it sounded like it didn’t want to break the bond anymore?_

“No, not just that. Can I read you something?”

She turned the lights on and took the book that was beside her bed.

 

Suddenly, the darkness was no darkness anymore. She could see him now, as clear as day. Kylo Ren was seated at the foot of her bunk, in the same place where he had been every night since Crait. She imagined he was actually on the other side of the galaxy, on some ship drifting through space. The Force nullified any distance between them.

He was looking at her, and there was genuine interest on his face.

She opened the book and started to recite the words.

 

_First comes the day_

_Then comes the night._

_After the darkness_

_Shines through the light._

_The difference, they say,_

_Is only made right_

_By the resolving of gray_

_Through refined Jedi sight._

 

“Will you help me understand, Ben?”

He smiled.

She felt like together they could face the entire universe.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever published. After The Last Jedi my Reylo headcanons were just too many to keep them all in my head.
> 
> I hope you liked it and please leave comments or suggestions! (Especially since English is not my first language. I need to improve!)
> 
> Note: _Tenebrae_ is Latin for _darkness_.


End file.
